


Smile and Nod

by Rosehip



Series: Strange Luck [6]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Gen, High School politics, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 11:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8247319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosehip/pseuds/Rosehip
Summary: In 9:23 Dragon, Silvana Amell arrives at Kinloch Hold. These are her first impressions.





	

Silvana hesitated in the door of the Great Hall before her training caught up with her. Her halting steps took on more firmness. Her measured tread on the stone would not betray her nervousness to those who heard it. She plastered a closed smile to her face that said “I am politely observing.” This was only dinner. There was no cause for alarm.  
  
Her heart raced. No cause except that she had to live with these people for the foreseeable future, regardless of their feelings for one another, Just as it had been in Kirkwall among her family's social strata. Silvana pondered. Was this better for its familiarity, or worse because a familiar torment still tormented in any event?  
  
The impossibly tall ceiling and reverent religious depictions gave lie to the assertion that Fereldans were all barbarians in love with their dogs. No barbarians or dogs dwelt within this hall, anyway.  
  
 _A barbarian designed this Maker-forsaken outfit_ , thought Silvana. She had wondered if the clothing they'd given her was a hazing ritual. Alas, no such luck. The robes all the women in the crowd wore would have greatly pleased the lecherous old bores in her mother's society parties. For all that the “robes” had a high collar and long sleeves against the chill, they left nothing at all to the imagination. A complex set of belts curved around her hips, framing her bottom. The robe featured corsetry as outerwear. Decorative piping outlined her bosom, re-creating the cleavage the fabric hid.  
  
 _I was sent here to study!_ Silvana lamented, silently. _How am I supposed to do that with so many stiff, uncomfortable bits digging into me all the time? My breasts get bigger at my monthly. What are we supposed to do THEN? Much to mother's disappointment, I'm not meant to catch any husbands, now. But I could. Oh no! I've been spotted by the next generation of lecherous old bores! Smile and nod. Promise nothing._  
  
One of the long tables hosted an assortment of society brats and their attractive hangers-on if she'd ever seen any, which she had. They saw her, and gestured magnanimously at a space they created for her. A small space. Right between two young men who probably didn't even realize they'd so obviously looked her up and down.  
  
Silvana shot them her best “I can't right now but thank you ever-so for thinking of me” smile and shrug.  She had the excuse of needing to get her food, to start with. She tossed her glossy black hair back from her face in a gesture that would allow her to get a surreptitious glance around the room. She noticed a sparsely populated table of apprentices. Good-natured laughter and joking conversation came from that direction. And she thought she noticed something else curious...  
  
 _Food first._ Silvana turned her attention to the buffet table. The journey had tried her patience in every possible way. A good, comfortable meal at an actual table sounded excellent. An array of simple (and therefore unfamiliar) foods awaited her. Silvana chose a creamy soup and a chunk of fresh, brown bread practically at random. Dessert didn't seem to be on offer, so she selected red wine to drink.  
  
She turned without hesitation to the table she'd spotted before. She might live to regret this. Silvana knew social suicide when she saw, or committed, it. She'd turned her back on the beautiful and the previously moneyed on a very tired whim. She couldn't care right then. She hadn't wanted to marry for her family's advancement. She hadn't liked most of the people her family knew, with the exception of a handful of scandalous “maiden” aunts. She knew one thing: the life she had now was different than anything she could have expected. It might as well be very, very different. She waved at the black haired, rosy cheeked peasant boy on one end of the table.  
  
He looked behind himself, then tilted his head at her quizzically. He didn't lose his smile, though. He shrugged and offered her a friendly wave in turn.  
  
He sat with a friend. A petite, younger girl with long, brunette hair sat with her back to Silvana. They would have to exchange beauty secrets. Careful braids wreathed her hair quite becomingly. What interested Silvana the most, however, was this girl wore the much more comfortable looking mens' robes. Why had they let her? Was this an option Silvana could request, or did they simply lack available sets tailored for the elf's more subtle figure? For, sure enough, one pronounced ear-tip slid through her hair as she turned to regard Silvana with blue, sea-glass eyes. The eyes would betray her even if she covered her ears.  
  
Mother would be furious. One could make important connections, even in a foreign circle in barbarian lands. Mother expected her to do just that. Silvana sat down with the jovial boy and the pretty elf.


End file.
